I Fellded
I Fellded
Apr 20I picked up Fell 4 by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith at a comic shop that had it in their “must read” shelves; I then tracked down 1-3 a few days later at another shop that still had them. Third printings, but who gives a shit, right?
Fell is a bit of an experiment by Ellis–a 24-page comic from Image, with 16 pages of story and the rest full of his “Back Matter,” basically a form of commentary track or behind the scenes doc of the book you’ve just read. The whole shebang is a done-in-one piece and priced to move at $1.99, a key element in Ellis’ intent to create a book that can essentially be bought for what counts today as “pocket change” and can be enjoyed without buying more issues before or after to complete the story.
Each issue so far has been a great read, comics’ version of maybe CSI or Law & Order with some strong character work sprinkled in, and the ongoing mysteries of this strange decaying down called Snowtown. But not in a “OHEMGEE there are demons beneath the sewers!” sense. It’s more of a “Jesus, this place is fucked up” sense, which plays well into Ellis’ continuing gift for embracing the darkness within stories and characters and transforming it into compelling reading. Even his heroes and love interests are at least a little fucked up–the leading man’s only friend in his new town brands him with a hot iron in the first issue–and that’s the way Warren likes it, and I like it too, because it’s always compelling and readable.
Templesmith’s art adds to the ambience, mostly dark, always a little fuzzy, yet with stabbing moments of clarity and expressiveness. You never doubt what his characters are feeling, just from the looks on their faces, and yet there’s still a haze in Snowtown, the kind of visual style that convinces you that you’ll never quite know everything that’s going on. Just like the characters never will.
But I think what I’m enjoying most about the book is that you really get two stories in each issue–there’s the story itself, and then there’s the story of how the story came to be. Not just the inspiration for each story but the nuts and bolts of how each story is put together from a writing perspective.
I’ve always been one of the types who looks forward to the extras on a DVD as much so, if not moreso, than the movie itself. I love the googaws of moviemaking but I also love hearing how they did it, and if that can be done in a thoughtful and entertaining way, so much the better.
So it’s like each issue delivers on three levels–there’s the story itself, there’s the how and the why of the story, and the entertainment value in reading about the how and why of the story. Like a magician who does a trick, then comes out and tells you how it’s done, but the way he tells you how it’s done is as fun as the trick itself.
THAT is worth $1.99. Big time.
And Jesus H., the entire first issue of Fell is available for free online. Read that shit, NOWsville.
WikiWikiWhack: Warren Ellis, Ben Templesmith
